This article discusses the Tibetan notion of rlung, usually translated as: ‘wind’, but perhaps better understood as a close equivalent of pneuma in the Greek tradition, or qi in the Chinese tradition. The article focuses on the way rlung provides a useful prism through which concepts of health, illness and disease may be observed in a cross-cultural perspective. An analysis of syndromes linked with rlung in a Tibetan cultural context illuminates some of the ways in which culture determines particular syndromes. The article raises a number of questions which are relevant for a more general multicultural approach to concepts of health, illness and disease.The article argues that notions of rlung/pneuma/wind/ qi constitute a particularly interesting area for an exploration of culture-bound syndromes, as they reside in the meeting point between material and non-material, physical and mental, as well as the psychological, spiritual and religious. They are hence fundamental for a more cross-cultural approach to the mind-body problem.The article also deals with the significance of history of medicine, particularly histories of medicine, which attempt to widen the scope of the traditional Eurocentric narrative of the history of medicine, in dealing with questions such as concepts of health and illness. Allowing alternative narratives—whether narratives of patients, other cultures or historical ones—can enhance our understanding of what health, illness and disease are. Discussing perceptions of the body as culturally defined is not only important from a philosophical or historical point of view, but also has important practical ramifications, which are particularly crucial in our global age.

From as early as the ninth century onwards, Arabic literature praises the quality of a typical and highly desirable product of Tibet, musk. In Arabic and Persian as well as Tibetan and Hebrew texts musk is discussed in a variety of genres such as geographical, zoological, religious and medical literature as well as in travellers' and merchants' accounts. These sources reveal an active trade route, which existed between Tibet and the Islamic world from the eighth century onwards. After discussing this set of trade routes, the article focuses on a comparison between the medical uses of musk in Arabic and Tibetan medical sources. The great number of similarities between the uses of musk in these two medical traditions suggests that along with the substance, there were also exchanges of knowledge. Hence we propose that following the model of the 'Silk Roads' and its cultural aspects, similar cultural interactions took place along the 'Musk Routes', which linked Tibet and the Islamic world.

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This paper readdresses the assertion found in much secondary literature that Greek medicine was adopted in Tibet in the seventh and eighth centuries. I discuss some of the traces of Galenic medical knowledge in early Tibetan medicine, and raise the question of why Tibetan medical histories who mention Galen give Galenic medicine a much more significant place than is evidenced in the Tibetan medical literature itself. I discuss some historiographical considerations and argue that the centrality given to Galenic medicine is more indicative of the period in which these sources are written than of the period which they presumably describe.